A clothes dryer typically has a rotating tumbler into which wet clothes are loaded, and heated air is passed through the tumbler to dry the clothes. Due to the high temperature of the heated air, there is a risk that the dried clothes may become overheated and develop a fire. To prevent such a risk, it is common to equip a clothes dryer with a fire suppression system. The fire suppression system typically has temperature sensors for detecting the temperature in the drying chamber that contains the tumbler, and a sprinkler or spray manifold system that is turned on when the temperature sensors detect a high temperature in the drying chamber.
To minimize the risk of fire hazard, the fire suppression system should be tested at regular intervals to ensure that it functions properly. The problem is that once the fire suppression system is installed in the clothes dryer it is difficult to test the system. Although there are several ways to test whether the fire suppression system works, such as by heating the temperature sensor above its threshold temperature or disconnecting the internal control circuit and manually short the temperature sensor, none of them is a satisfactory solution. To use a heating device on the temperature sensor inside the drying chamber would create a potential risk to the user or the equipment. Disconnecting the internal circuit could reduce the integrity of the connectors and the circuit board over time. Moreover, the relative difficulty in disconnecting the circuit and the inability to ensure that the circuit will be properly reconnected after the tests may cause the operators of the dryers to omit the testing all together. Accordingly, there is a need for way to test the fire suppression system in a clothes dryer that is easy to perform and reliable.